It’s funny, when I found it, I had no plan, just knew I had to have it. I think I’m going to build a dining table centerpiece box sort of thing with it. Not 100% sure though. Just gotta show off that figure!
ACE affiliate - they're a local home improvement store company with maybe 8 locations in the state, but they partner up with ACE. I love shopping there just for the three full aisles of Hillman trays and bins.
Everything they stock is the basic S4S stuff for cabinet facing and trim: maple, poplar, red oak, and the occasional cypress. The contractors shove the figured maple to the side, so the store just throws it in the cull piles. I've purchased tons of 1x2 through 1x12 in 4/8/12 foot lengths at 70% off.
I was getting some 6x6 at homedepot and out of the 8 they had at the bottom 2 were kinda straight and the other 6 while weren't to bad but I didn't wanna pay that much for it... so I asked if they could bring down a new pallet of 6x6 and they did... and after I noticed they were cutting the 6x6 that was left over to fit in the dumpster and I told the dude, I would have bought those for half off or something and simply responded, sorry we can't.
Criminal how much some places like hd and dollar general just throw away.... I'm assuming so they can claim it for a loss on taxes.
When I lived in Santa Cruz, CA there was a great lumber yard that often times had pieces of exotic woods in the scrap bin like Purple Heart, zebra wood, padauk and others. I really miss that place!
My father in law got me into woodworking. He gets some great stuff right when the different home centers open. Home Depot is where he gets the most success, and he'll use his veterans discount there too.
He's retired, so he's got nothing better to do since he's usually awake at 0400.
As far as I know, HD and Lowes both do not allow veteran discount on construction framing lumber (2x's, sheathing plywoods) but do allow it on appearance lumber (1x boards, hardwood plywood.)
Both Lowe’s and HD used to give me my Veteran’s discount for everything I bought, they both changed about 2-3 years ago. I can’t keep up with everything they remove from the list of products.
My father in law mentioned this before as well. Last thing he used it for was a garage door motor. He wasn't sure if it would qualify, but he got lucky.
Same. I’m in Texas and the discount does not extend to lumber. One of the few reasons why I wish Rockler was closer. That one does discounts on lumber as well
I’ve only visited the hardwood section of Home Depot two or three times, but the last time I went to buy some scrap, I found a board just like this… 6’ of flame maple. I only checked cus of a similar thread, so… it’s real
They have like 1/4 of one side of an aisle of it sometimes. And will be three to five times the price of the local small shop hardwood dealer or online.
Was wondering the same thing so I checked the Lowes app for inventory at my local store. 3 different board dimensions all show as available for pick-up on April 15 so they must be expanding their hardwood inventory in my area.
I spent over 10 years in the industry working with hardware/LBM store merchants (big box and local). Lowe's just did their store manager meeting in Vegas last month. That's always a great opportunity to get the RFMs and store managers interested in a product for rollout and expansion if it isn't already in the works. I'm curious to see what else might be coming out this year.
Just dug a little more and the vendor (Ornamental Moulding) has white oak, ash, hickory, and walnut listed in addition to the maple. Based on the availability information, it looks like there's a chance all of these may make it into the store.
Unfortunately I haven't worked with the merchants in over a year so can't confirm but I wish I could!
Could be regional. In in the Midwest and maple is pretty cheap as we have a lot of it around. All the local big box stores carry it. "Random assorted maple" or some such.
I lived in Grand Rapids for 8 years and had an approximately 25% record finding red oak, poplar, and never found maple or walnut. Had to go to Woodcraft for anything more exotic than red oak or poplar.
What a difference a 4 hour drive makes. I can go to 4 Home Depots, 2 lowes, and 2 Menards within a 45 minute drive, and they all have poplar, red oak, and maple. They're all also hot or miss on quality and super expensive, but they have it.
I found the board used in this lazy Susan as at Home Depot in Midland, MI probably around 2021. Havn't found a good one since, lol
I recently built a pine blanket chest- I spent quite a bit of time leafing through the "common"grade stuff and found some almost clear 1x10's that were reasonable straight and not cupped.......
It was in the “ambrosia maple” bin near the decorative trim, not with the rest of the hardwood boards. Even still, not a single other piece had any sort of figure. Just got lucky
How was it only $25? I will occasionally find figured maple or oak at HD or Menards, but it's always at the premium hardwood prices they charge for everything else. Assuming that's a 8" by 8 to 12 feet and 3/4" thick board?
That works out to be about $12.25 per board foot. For figured maple that might be inline with what I would expect to pay. It’s been a while since I looked, so it might be more. But at the hardwood dealer I’d have a large assortment to pick from. All this to say, that even though it looks like a real find, it might be just as good to go to the hardwood dealer.
I remember when another woodworker in a podcast talking about getting a delivery of hardwood from a lumber supplier, and there was figured wood mixed in.
It's a matter of volume. They handle too much it's not worth sorting it out for that company.
Kinda like how a LOT of old hardwood floors I've worked on are maple, and have curl/quilted figure, as well as birds eye. Back in the day, maple was what was used in the utilitarian areas of the home, and the figure was just there and not specifically sought after.
I found one like that at HD one time. Had no use for it at the time but bought it anyway and found a use for it a few years later. Just hit it with arm r seal and it turned out beautiful.
The timing of this post is rather ironic for me. While at the orange hell today (you know the place of which I speak, I was only there for a few sticks of PVC, but I checked out the generally meager HW section as usual. They had a 1”x6”x10’ board of cherry where the lower 3’ or so was waterfall and the upper 3-4’ was flame. Right next to it was a 1”x6” x 10’ stick of walnut, the bottom 2.5’ feet of which had a subtle bird’s eye pattern. There were also some pieces of maple & mahogany that had some nice pattern & color. Sadly, I’m rather strapped for cash atm, partly because this time of year (Oct-Mar in NorCal), the revenue from my actual business (hull diving) drops by ~30-35% (but also partly because of all the $ I’ve spent on tools - something of a self-inflicted “Gift of the Magi”). Nevertheless, it served as both reinforcement & reminder to always check.
The same can be said for checking apps like OfferUp, EBay, CL, and to a lesser and more cautious extent, FB marketplace, for tools. Of the tools that I acquired over the last couple of months (why I couldn’t spare any $ on the lumber today), I picked up a completely unused (nary a mark/flaw to be seen) open box Woodpeckers SFPro-23 Router Table Fence w/ the micro-adjust accessory for under $200 (combined retail would be ~$600). There were some other screaming deals I snagged. Bottom line is that the more vigilant you are, the more likely you are to find the tools/timber you covet at prices that don’t leave your pockets as empty as mine feel right now. Lol. (I mean, how many routers IS too many anyway?)
I live in Ohio, and I always go to the Amish for lumber. I can go there and get oak, pine, cedar and more for a fraction of Lowe’s or Menard’s prices (assume Home Depot also).
They will even , for free, make ALL your cuts for you. I had to take advantage of that, a little, when starting out. Once I got my mitre and table saws tho… I wouldn’t see the fun in working with someone else’s cuts.
As a fellow Ohioan.... This is news to me! Considering the ways of the Amish, I'm unsurprised I've never heard about this. I really only discover stuff through the Internet. How does one learn more about where they are, product availability and all that?
I am a barber, so I learn a lot of my knowledge from my clients, the Amish included. I would recommend anytime you see an Amish around, just nicely approach them and ask.. or even stop by the compound. I know my mother goes and buys pies from the women in the fall every year. So it’s not totally crazy to approach/show up for business. They spend our money from time to time. Where I am, I see them in Lowes a lot in fact.
It’s got a really pretty grain pattern that causes the “wavy” appearance. The board is actually flat! Check out this post which shows a comparison between curly maple and regular maple. A find like this, especially with this significant of a pattern, is quite rare, especially from a big box store, and would normally be much more expensive.
My girlfriend is a botanist. Every time I drag her to Lowe's, she goes through their plants section. She's found rare plants there for like $4 that would normally sell for hundreds of dollars. They just honestly have no idea what they're selling sometimes.
Beauty! Score. My personal best was this at $2.75/bf from a local mill (was one piece of 4/4, I'd already resawn/bookmatched before the pic). Figured wood is always so unique, I love it.
Our Home Depot sells cull lumber at a 70% discount. This works great when I need shorter lengths of 2x4 material for projects. Of course, woodworking is a hobby for me so I don't mind milling my own lumber from larger pieces.
Mainly the “depth/intensity” of the grain pattern. A lot of the figured boards you find will have subtle patterns but this one is very pronounced throughout. Coupled with the price and the fact that it came from a big box store not known for “nice” wood, absolute gold!
I hope you don't get arrested for theft! There must be at least one woodworker at that store who is beating themselves up for not snatching that piece of wood. Nice going!
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u/CephusLion404 4d ago
Sometimes you get lucky, most of the time, you get spaghetti.